Tag: 2pac

Rap legends from top left (clockwise): Jay-Z, Notorious B.I.G., Tupac Shakur, and Eminem. Between them, they’ve had 32 Number One albums.

(Updated August 26, 2019). Here’s an exclusive listing of all 201 rap and hip-hop albums that have reached Number One on the Billboard 200, from the first one in March 1987, the Beastie Boys’ Licensed To Ill, to the most recent as of the chart dated August 31, 2019 (So Much Fun by Young Thug).

You won’t find a more complete and accurate listing of rap/hip-hop albums that have topped the album chart anywhere but here on djrobblog.

Rap music first appeared in commercial recordings and on the Billboard charts in the late 1970s, but didn’t cross into the mainstream until nearly a decade later when icons like Run-DMC, L.L. Cool J and Beastie Boys made it more palatable to suburban (white) teenagers.

Not surprisingly, the Beasties’ rock-leaning brand of rap was the first to top Billboard’s main album chart. But it wasn’t long before artists like NWA, Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. blew the doors wide open.

In the 32 years since the Beasties’ triumph, 201 albums that qualify as rap/hip-hop have topped the chart, and djrobblog has tallied all of them right here.

(Clockwise from top left): Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Lauryn Hill, Eve and Foxy Brown are the only female rappers to have achieved No. 1 albums.

Albums are listed in chronological order by title, artist and the chart date they first reached Number One, along with a running count of the number of #1 albums for the artist. (Note: the count does NOT represent the total album output of any artist, just the running count of those that have reached #1 on the Billboard 200.)

Soundtrack albums that are predominantly hip-hop in nature are included in this historic recap. However, albums that only contain a small percentage of rap or hip-hop songs are excluded – as are R&B or pop albums in which rap artists mainly serve in featured roles.

The artists with the most No. 1 albums to date are (to no one’s surprise):

The year with the most No. 1 hip-hop albums is 2018 with 18, followed by 2017 with twelve, and 2015 with eleven. So far in 2019 there have also been eleven No. 1 hip-hop albums on the Billboard 200, which ties it for third with 2015.

As an added bonus, you can listen to a key track from each one* of the 201 albums by clicking the link below to access my special playlist on Spotify. (*assuming the artist’s product is available on the streaming service).

Enjoy.

Licensed To Ill – Beastie Boys (3/07/87; their first #1)

Loc-ed After Dark – Tone-Loc (4/15/89; his first)

Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em – MC Hammer (6/09/90; his first)

To The Extreme – Vanilla Ice (11/10/90; his first)

EFIL4ZAGGIN – N.W.A. (6/22/91; their first)

Totally Krossed Out – Kris Kross (5/23/92; their first)

The Predator (World) – Ice Cube (12/05/92; his first)

Black Sunday – Cypress Hill (8/07/93; their first)

Doggystyle – Snoop Doggy Dogg (12/11/93; his first)

Ill Communication – Beastie Boys (6/18/94; their second)

Murder Was The Case (Soundtrack) – Various Artists (11/05/94)

Me Against The World – 2Pac (4/01/95; his first)

Friday (Soundtrack) – Various Artists (5/13/95)

E. Eternal 1999 – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (8/12/95; their first)

Dangerous Minds (Soundtrack) – Various Artists (9/02/95)

Dogg Food – Tha Dogg Pound (11/18/95; their first)

All Eyez On Me – 2Pac (3/02/96; his second)

The Score – Fugees (5/25/96; their first)

It Was Written – Nas (7/20/96; his first)

Beats, Rhymes & Life – A Tribe Called Quest (8/17/96; their first)

The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory – Makaveli (2Pac) (11/23/96; his third)

The Doggfather – Snoop Dogg (11/30/96; his second)

The Untouchable – Scarface (3/29/97; his first)

Life After Death – The Notorious B.I.G. (4/12/97; his first)

Wu-Tang Forever – Wu-Tang Clan (6/21/97; their first)

No Way Out – Puff Daddy & the Family (8/09/97; his first)

The Art of War: World War 1 – Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (8/16/97; their second)